Expression Sessions – The Pros and Cons of Taking Selfies

Everybody knows about selfies and we’re sure everybody has tried to do it. If you don’t know what selfies are, then you’re probably from another world.

Selfies have become a social media norm. People take selfies on train or bus rides, at the grocery store, before eating lunch, when out with friends, and even in the comfort room. Because of the ever-evolving mobile technology, taking selfies simply became so easy to do.

But while it has a couple of positive side effects, taking selfies also affect people in a negative way. What could selfies possibly inflict, you wonder? Let’s find out!

Here are the pros and cons of taking selfies.

PRO: It boosts one’s confidence.

What better way to feel confident about yourself than people liking your selfies? What more if that certain someone is your crush? We’re sure your heart will skip a beat, won’t it? Selfies capture and immortalize certain occasions when we felt beautiful and having someone validates that makes us feel good about ourselves. And with all the negativity in the world, who wouldn’t want to feel that?

CON: It encourages narcissism.

Too much of something can be harmful. So like anything else, taking too much selfies can trigger some issues — one of which is narcissism. Social media, in itself, is already narcissistic. What more is that through it, selfies promote a self-indulgent, beauty-obsessed culture. When we post selfies on instagram, we expect people to like them. It gets tons of likes and comments, so we take more selfies and post more again, and again, and again until who knows when? If you think about it, selfies are kind of addicting in that sense, too.

PRO: It pushes one to be creative.

People follow selfie trends like people follow fashion. And like clothing styles, poses get old, too. So in a way, people are creatively challenged to come up with something new to show in their selfies.

CON: It can be a bit too revealing and obsessive.

One way of receiving more attention is if you are doing something interesting in your selfie. When we say interesting, we don’t mean posting revealing or half naked pics of yourself nearly everyday. It’s not the way you should rack up more likes. Post selfies of you skydiving, or rock climbing, or whatever that promotes something else other than your cleavage or huge biceps. It’s okay to flaunt your features every once in a while, but posting revealing selfies are not the way to go.

Remember: you do not have to share each and every selfie you take with the world and people do not need to see every single thing that’s going on in your life. Go ahead and take a few selfies, just keep in mind that like any indulgences, selfies can be abused. Thus, it must be done in moderation.